Pillars of Eternity - Post-Funding Update # 80

June 12th, 2014, 09:19

Obsidian Entertainment has released the next update for Pillars of Eternity from E3 with a new video, and talks about the games Alpha & Beta.

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From Alpha to Beta

Hey, everyone. Due to E3 crunch we are going to push off Josh's next class update for a couple of weeks. Instead, I will give an update about the general state of affairs for each department on the project now that we are getting ready to head into our Beta period. The next update will feature Josh's final class update along with info from the Eternity E3 presentation. Let's get into it.

Area Design

All of the areas have been in the game for about a month now, and the area designers have been revisiting each area to make sure everything is in order. They're using specially crafted Alpha checklists to make sure that none of the major items are missed. For example, designers are checking that the area has a proper navigation mesh, ambient sound effects are placed, and scene transitions are working as intended.

Josh (Project Director) and Bobby (Area Design Lead) are heading up meetings to review all of the quests in the game. Each quest is played through by the team and analyzed. We ask basic questions like "Why is this quest fun?", "Does the player care about this quest?", and "What hooks the player into starting the quest?" If anything is lacking, the design team spruces the quest up to make it a memorable one. Over the Beta period the designers will continue fixing bugs and polishing content.

Environment Art

Much like our area designers, our environment artists have been revisiting all of the areas of the game and performing their Alpha checklists to make sure all of the areas pass art Alpha. In addition to the checklists, they are performing polish work that had been identified previously by Bobby and Rob (Art Director) on areas.Currently, the environment artists have done a pass on all of our critical path areas and they will be moving onto our side content once we enter Beta.

Systems Design

Now that our systems are all in place, Josh has been focused on balance and polish bugs that have piled up over the course of the project. For me, this is one of the more exciting times in the project because the game really starts to take shape and become fun.Game balance will continue throughout our Beta period, right up to our release.

UI

Kaz (Concept and UI Artist) has been finishing up the last remaining UI screens. He is now working on Scripted Interaction images, icons, area paint-overs, and portraits and will be doing so for the foreseeable future.

Animation

The animation team has been wrapping up the last B priority items and will moving into full-time polish until the end of the project. B priority animations are things like special creature attacks, class-specific spell casts, or animations for minor creatures (animal critters, for example).Once the animation team has finished up creating the animations, they will be focused on animation polish.

Character Art

Our character artists have completed all of the creatures and creature variants we planned for the game (and even a few that we hadn't planned on). They have also created all of the base weapon and armor variants, and now character art is focused on finishing up all of the unique armors and weapons. Once they complete the last bit of gear, they will move onto creating a few additional head and hair variants for each race. Like the rest of the team, they will also be polishing content for the remainder of the project

I like the wave action, but am a bit disappointed that the rock and hull of the ship doesn't show at least the gleam of wetness when the wave passes, let alone a scum line. First thing I noticed but I guess I live on a shore, so that stuff sticks out to me…

It's very pretty, but to nitpick, the water and waves effect is too "clock-worky", I understand it is meant to be that way because it is supposed to represent the tide going in and out, but it would be cool to have some sort of variation, if not a different type of wave effect in combination with what is there already, or if nothing else, just the timing altered on the effect so it is not quite so artificial in terms of being like clockwork. In other words, the waves at a beach will often change their "routine", this is from someone who spent a lot of time at California beaches in his youth.

I'm impressed It doesn't have to be overly realistic, in my opinion. I think the environment so far is really good, more than I expected. Now, they just need to concentrate on story, dialogues and character developments….

Edit: And bug free content and no cut contents… sick of those from Obsidian.